Review: Shatter Me

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Category/Genre: YA, Dystopia, Sci-Fi

See it at Goodreads



No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.



Shatter Me was a book that I went into with not only high expectations, but knowing ahead of time that it was going to be in a different style that I normally would find. It’d been on my wish list a long time so I was excited to finally get it. I’d read several reviews beforehand, so I knew about the strike-outs and the disjointed narration, so I wasn’t taken by surprise by it. Honestly, it wasn’t entirely a new style or unique to me because I’d read a book called Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson a couple years ago--and the style was almost similar in some ways. However, it was a slow start because at times I felt the descriptions were a bit too fluffy and flowery, or over-done maybe (sometimes, I feel like they didn’t even make much sense even)… a bit much, and the story progressed a little slowly too. It took a little while for me to pick it up and learn what exactly was going on and for the action to start.

Some of my biggest problems though were with the romantic side. I had a few frowns whenever Juliette thought about how “gorgeous” Warner was, despite his cruelty. I know that my own common sense would tell me that no matter how good looking a guy is, if he’s cruel, he’s completely ugly and I’m not interested. Maybe that’s just me though. I didn’t like the idea of a possible building love triangle, and I can certainly see it building by the end of this first installment. Though, I’m sure I’ll get the second to see where it’ll go from here. I didn’t always feel it between her and Adam either. It just felt all over the place with the romance at times. A lot of ups and downs in that area.

I felt a lot of questions were still unanswered, but hoping they’ll get answered soon.

Once Shatter Me picked up, I did find myself unable to put it down, and the descriptions became smoother and easier to read throughout. I also liked the building relationship between Juliette and Adam when they were in the asylum. I really look forward to seeing where this continues and more of this world in the next installment. Glad that I had the opportunity to sit down and finally read this one!